ACE Center: Optimizing social and communication outcomes for toddlers with autism

This grant provides support for an NIH Autism Center of Excellence (ACE). The proposed research tests a theoretically and empirically derived treatment approach aimed at facilitating change in joint attention interactions between caregivers and their toddlers with autism. The importance of joint attention is underscored by data showing that these skills are important to later development of language. Yet these interactions have rarely been the focus of systematic intervention efforts. Thus, targeting these deficits in developmentally young children using familiar caregivers may result in better language outcomes for these children. Child outcomes will be compared for children whose mothers receive a direct, hands-on joint attention intervention with their toddlers versus mothers who receive parent education about autism and child development.